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Participants at the inaugural women's right convention at Seneca Falls adopt the Declaration of Sentiments. The Declaration of Sentiments calls for equality for women and includes resolution that women should get the right to vote. The suffrage resolution passes by a narrow margin. -
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony form the National Woman Suffrage Association. The goal of this organization is to achieve voting rights by the means of an amendment to the constitution.
Henry Blackwell and Lucy Stone form the American Woman Suffrage Association. This group focuses on getting voting rights for women in individual states. -
The 15th and 14th Amendments have been ratified. This causes an uproar within the women's rights movement because these amendments give African American males the right to vote, but not women. Legislature of Wyoming passes the nations first women's Suffrage law in December.
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Susan B. Anthony and over a dozen other women are arrested for voting in the presidential election. Susan B. Anthony was tried and convicted in 1873. Her defense was the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment. She was fined $100, but never paid. -
California senator Aaron Sargent introduces the women suffrage amendment to congress for the first time. It reads: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall no be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex." This will become the wording for when the amendment is passed.
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The National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association combine together to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA). This new group goes state to state campaigning to gain voting rights for women. -
Alice Paul and Lucy Burns break away from NAWSA, they founded the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage. They were inspired by Great Britain's Suffragists where Alice Paul leads a protest march. Around 5,000 to 10,000 women gather in Washington, D.C. on Woodrow Wilson's inauguration. -
In January of 1918 the house of representatives opened debate about establishing a constitutional amendment guaranteeing women's suffrage. The house was in favor, but the Senate failed to reach 2/3. During a speech to congress in September, president Wilson announces he has changed his position to support a federal woman's suffrage amendment. -
On May 21, 1919 the 19th amendment passes in the house, following it passed through the Senate on July 4th, and was on its way to the states. Eleven states voted to ratify by late July of 1919. Georgia voted against ratification on July 24 and Alabama becomes the second state to vote against it. More states continued to vote, but at this point it is 14 states short of ratification.
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Tennessee Senate votes to ratify while in the house it is still tied. Legislator Harry Burns changes his vote after his mother urges him to. On August 18, 1920 Tennessee becomes the 36th state to ratify. On August 26th the U.S. Secretary of State certifies the ratification of the 19th amendment, giving women the right to vote. More than 8 million American women cast their vote in the November presidential election.